Susie Elson, Ambassador Ed Elson, and Isabel Elson.

Palm Beach Spirit, Let’s Hear It!

This past December, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach hosted a cocktail reception and book signing for In the Spirit of Palm Beach, written by Pamela Fiori. Preservation Foundation Executive Director Alexander Ives welcomed guests in the Robert M. Grace Library at the foundation’s offices, located at 311 Peruvian Ave.

Thanks to Pamela Fiori’s new coffee-table book, one may glimpse what makes this 16-mile stretch of enchantment such an exclusive enclave. “What I hope Palm Beach habitués will appreciate most about the book is how fortunate they are to be able to spend time in such a beautiful, untainted place,” says Fiori.

All the PBers you love to read about were there: Susan Beattie, Bill Diamond, Christine Dirocco, Lisa Heard, Dorian Baldwin, Kristin Kellogg, Katherine Lande, Linda Olsson, Janet Pleasants, Michael Ridgdill, Stephanie Rockwell and Donald Scott.

Mandy and Mary Ourisman

Frances Hayward and Scott Moses.

Five or six years ago, I spent 10 delightful, sun-drenched days in Palm Beach. One afternoon I stopped to pick up a package at Ralph Lauren on Worth Avenue. I had just come from a beautiful luncheon at Café Boulud, and I remember I was wearing lime green cotton trousers embroidered with carnival pink flamingos, a bengal-striped Ralph Lauren button-down shirt, red- and yellow-striped bow tie, blue blazer, and brown lizard Belgian loafers with no socks.

As I stepped out of the store to head back to The Brazilian Court, I encountered two name-badged Boca Raton conventioneers waiting to let me pass before entering the store themselves. Unlocking my bike, I overheard one say to the other, “Now that’s the Palm Beach look!”

My friend Steven Stolman would have approved. Pamela Fiori, too.

 

BC—March 2013

Pamela Fiori and Colt Givner.

Alexander Ives and Carol Ives.

John Mashek and Hazel Rubin.

Vanessa Rooks and Troy Portelance.

Talbott Maxey and Bea Guthrie.

Marsha Wilson, John Firestone, and Kae Jonsons.